Skip to content Skip to main navigation Skip to footer

Stop 0x0000007B Inaccessible Boot Device When Booting Windows Vista or Windows 7/8.x/10

Problem: 

When attempting to boot from a Windows Vista or Windows 7/8.x/10 partition, you receive the following blue-screen error message:

STOP 0x0000007B INACCESSABLE_BOOT_DEVICE

Note: Windows 8.x/10 have a different version of the error screen that lists the text part of the error without the error code.

Cause: 

This is a Windows configuration issue, most commonly an incorrect storage driver is being used. For Windows Vista, you may get this error in a Virtual Machine when running with an insufficient amount of memory configured for the guest operating system (e.g. 128MB).

Solution:

Make sure Windows is using the correct storage controller driver.

Error received when installing Windows:

Download the current storage controller drivers for your motherboard from the manufacturer's website. Make sure to use the correct drivers for the controller's mode. For example, many boards require the RAID drivers to be used if any of the connected drives are configured in RAID mode. Using the AHCI drivers when RAID mode is enabled can cause this error (even if the drives are not in a RAID setup).

Error received when attempting to boot from a partition that was moved from another Windows Vista or Windows 7/8.x/10 computer:

Use the Terabyte OS Deployment Tool to install the proper drivers. Click here and here for more information.

For additional information, refer to the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article for more solutions associated with this STOP error message:

Error message when you start a Windows 7 or Windows Vista-based computer after you change the SATA mode of the boot drive: "STOP 0x0000007B INACCESSABLE_BOOT_DEVICE"

Error received when attempting to boot Windows Vista in a Virtual Machine with insufficient memory:

Assign at least 512MB of memory to Windows Vista in the virtual machine (1GB or more is recommended).

Was This Article Helpful?

1